D&D 5E: Naught, adventuring minotaur

Naught was born under peculiar circumstances, a homunculi body forged into the form of a minotaur by the Lich Malenkin and later liberated from the Lich's tower by a group of errant adventurers who had no place poking their nose into his affairs. Naught was forged into his form of a minotaur and so has no understanding of their culture, their ways or even their language and mannerisms; he is a tabula rasa of sorts, learning about the world as he travels along.

So far Naught, who took the name to reflect that he was neither a minotaur nor a homunculi any longer, has spent some time studying sword and spell under the adventurers who liberated him. They have been perplexed by his hesitance to fight, though it eventually became clear that Naught's problem stemmed from the innate fear that the homunculi feel at being around any truly living things.

Because of his odd upbringing as a mad lich's experiment, Naught's time in the tower taught him core survival skills (rogue). His subsequent time with his liberators has introduced him to the more martial skills, with some dabbling in magic. However, their training has focused entirely on fighting with a single long sword and some minor magic. This has led Naught to favor a duelist's style, which is unusual for his race.

Naught (Source)

Naught
Minotaur (shifted homunculi), Rogue Level 1, Fighter level 3
Medium male minotaur (8 feet tall), albino skin and fur
Background: Wizard's Experiment
Str 17 (+3), Dex 13 (+1), Con 12 (+1), Int 14 (+2), Wis 9 (-1), Cha 10 (0)
Proficiency +2; Saves: Str, Dex, Con, Int
Hit Dice: 1D8+3D10 (+4); Hit Points: 31 Armor Class: 15 (14 natural plus Dex)

Languages: Common (Mercurian), Homunculi's Tongue, Minotaurish

Skills: Arcana +4, Athletics +5, History +4, Perception +1, Sleight of Hand +3, Stealth +5

Proficiency: Light armor, medium armor, shields, simple weapons, martial weapons, thieves tools (expertise)

Rogue Abilities: Expertise (Stealth, Thieves Tools), Sneak Attack (1D6), Thieves Cant (special: Homunculi language)

Fighter Abilities: Fighting Style: Dueling, Second Wind, Action Surge, Archetype: Champion (improved critical)

Minotaur Abilities: reckless, charge, gore attack (2D8+Str), darkvision 60 feet

Feats: Magic Initiate (wizard spells: Blade Ward, Mending and Comprehend Languages)

Background - Wizard's Experiment Traits: Odd familiarity: once per long rest naught can apply advantage to an untrained Arcana check on something magical, be it an item, piece or lore, or odd fact.

Armor: Naught wears only a loose tunic and leather harness. He favors his natural armor (AC 14) and dexterity.

Weapon of Choice: longsword +1 (+6 attack; 1D8+6 single-handed, or 1D10+4 as a two-handed versatile weapon; Crits on 19-20) or Gore (2D8+3 damage, possible extra 2D8 charge damage)

Duelist and Gore: for purposes of Duelist I am interpreting it literally that a duelist must be wielding a one-handed weapon to get the bonus, and gore does not qualify for it.

Design Notes: Naught is an ongoing NPC in my Saturday game. His development is based on what he's exposed to in the course of play, ergo his rogue, then fighter-duelist choices. His Champion option is based on expedience; it's much easier to adjudicate a champion fighter in play which requires none of the extra work of the other fighter archetypes. Likewise, his magic initiate feats, while based on what was taught to him, reflect a combination of what Naught could learn and what he would personally find useful; Naught is indeed "not" a real minotaur in many ways, so his spells reflect the interests of a being that began as a tiny homunculus and was eventually forged for sadistic amusement by the lich Malenkin into a giant of a being with no understanding of its own heritage. Naught really, really wants to learn what it means to be a real minotaur....but he still has yet to meet a live one!

D&D 5th: Sedara Braims, Level 10 human necromancer sage

So it begins! I'm going to produce as many new D&D 5th edition characters per week as I can find time for until the arrival of the Monster Manual. Some will be spanky new, some will be conversions of classic NPCs and retired characters from my campaigns, others will be off the cuff. Today we have a venerable treasure-hunting necromancer who is the youngest reluctant member of an ancient order of monster hunters....

Source

Sedara Braims

Masirian female, age 34 (Setting: Realms of Chirak)

Wizard Necromancer level 10 Sage

STR      DEX     CON    INT      WIS     CHA     HPs      Proficiency     Spell Save DC Memorized    

10        12        10        20        14        13        52        +4                    17                    15

0          +1        0          +5(+9)  +2(+6)  +1       

Hit Dice           Init      Speed  Armor Class                Alignment      Level   Experience     

10D6                +1        30        14 (w/bracers)                        Neutral Evil     10        76,100

Spell    Cantrips          L1        L2        L3        L4        L5        L6        L7        L8        L9

Slots      5                      4          3          3          3          2          -           -           -           -

Saves               INT, WIS

Languages      Grelmanic, Elvish, Espanean, Masirian, Old Mythric, Inadasir, draconic

Feats               Linguist

Skills                Arcana +9, History +9, Intimidation +5, Deception +5

Wizard Traits  ritual casting, arcane recovery (5 levels), School of Necromancy, grim harvest, undread thralls (one extra, +10 HP, +4 attack), inured to undeath (necrotic resistance)

Sage Traits      Researcher

Spell Book:

Cantrips                      blade ward, light, poison spray, chill touch, true strike

Level 1                        comprehend languages, detect magic, false life, identify, mage armor, magic  missile, sleep, witch bolt

Level 2                        darkness, misty step, phantasmal force, invisibility, blindness/deafness

Level 3                        animate dead, bestow curse, fear, feign death, vampiric touch

Level 4                        Evard’s black tentacles, fire shield, phantasmal killer, stone shape, blight

Level 5                        cloudkill, contact other plane, contagion, teleportation circle

Armor              Cloak of Protection +1, Bracers of Defense +3                                 

Weapons        Dagger +1 (+6 attack, 1D4+2 damage)

Personality     I am the immortal daughter of one of the world’s greatest hunters of thousandspawn, and have the hubris to show for it.

Ideal                Power….the mastery of necromancy

Bond               I am descended from an ancient order dedicated to hunting and entombing thousandspawn and feel a need to fulfill my destiny

Flaw                My callousness often shows through, and I have severe empathy issues.

Brief History: Sedara Braims was the daughter of Daregos Braims, a famous monster hunter and agent of the ancient Order of the Thousand, a society of twelve hunters dedicated to hunting down and destroying or imprisoning the Thousdanspawn of the chaos god Ga’Thon. Sedara was indoctrinated into the order at a young age but has struggled with her inner desire for power and the need to aster death vs. her father's wishes that she use her magic to end the Thousandspawn. She started her career working to destroy Kostchie the Damned, and later assisted the Avatar Maretz with protecting the City of the Sun form the destruction of the chaos beast which is eternally devouring the sun. She was last spotted deep in the south beyond the kingdom of Daman on a quest for the Dagger of Shaligon, believed to be in the possession of a particularly vile thousandspawn.

Three Plot Ideas:

1. Sedara hires a young and naive group of adventurers to help her locate the enigmatic Dagger of Shaligon, but stumble across an orcish plot to destroy the kingdom using not the dagger but the even more exotic Eyes of Shaligon, which give the orcs a scrying advantage over the human kingdom.

2. Sedara has been summoned to the Order of the Thousand, which consists of herself and eleven aging hunters. Recently several members were slain, and they seek to replace those members with worthy heroes....Sedara is given the task of finding heroes worthy of this cause, something she despises but feels duty bound to assist on.

3. Sedara learns that the Lich King Malenkin has left his tower unguarded, apparently moving with his entire entourage to the Kaldinian Isles. She either hires adventurers to assist her on an expedition to investigate the tower and learn its secrets or she works for an oppositional group that the PCs must race against time to compete with.

Valgos, Slayer of Elves in Pathfinder

Okay, the era of B/X D&D was a time of experimentation and while monsters were often played as characters, you needed to look to the competition (Monsters! Monsters!, Runequest and others) for actual official rules support on how to do it. Today, of course, Pathfinder and D20 in general is built from the ground up to allow for whatever crazy-ass monster characters your GM will suffer with, so it was hard to resist statting Valgos out accordingly. Also, I have to admit I still find it oddly amusing that I pretty much spend 90% of my real world game time running Pathfinder (when not reading other games, and running Magic World) but 90% of my blog time on OSR games, BRP stuff and pretty much anything but Pathfinder. So….here ya go. At the very least it can be fun to see what the same essential build looks like circa 1980 vs. 2013:

Valgos, Slayer of Elves (Pathfinderized)

Orc Fighter level 4, Alignment: Chaotic Evil

STR         23 (+6)                  Fortitude              +5

DEX        12 (+1)                  Reflexes                 +2

CON       16 (+3)                  Will                          0

INT         12 (+1)                  AC                            20                                 

WIS        8 (-1)                     Flat-Footed AC:    19            Touch Attack AC:   11

CHA       13 (+1)                  BAB                      +4 (+10 melee, +5 ranged)

HPs        39          

Languages: common (middle tongue), orcish, abyssal, elvish

Skills: Climb +10, Intimidate +6, Knowledge (dungeoneering) +5,  Ride +5, Survival +5, Swim +10, Linguistics +3

Orc Traits: darkvision, light sensitivity, orcish weapon familiarity

Fighter Traits: Bravery 1, Armor Training 1

Feats: Weapon Focus (great axe), Catch Off-Guard, Power Attack, Cleave, Great Cleave

Weapons, Armor and Gear:

Great Axe +1, +2 elven (fey) bane (1D12+10 damage; +12 attack; crit X3; Against fey: 1D12+2D6+11 damage; +13 attack (+2 weapon instead of +1) and crit X3)

Heavy Crossbow (1D10 damage; +5 attack; 19-20/X2 crit) with 20 bolts and quiver

Full Plate suit (+9 AB, -5 ACP*, +2 Dex Bonus*)

Helm of Telepathy (detect thoughts at well; send messages at will; suggestion once/day at DC 14)

Bag of 50 GP, ten rubies worth 50 GP each

*due to armor training

Malfeus Thorne, Hexblade

Just for fun here's a hexblade NPC I worked up for insertion into a game as needed:

Malfeus Thorne


A Hexblade NPC for use with Castles & Crusades

Description: Malfeus Thorne is a devilish looking rogue, a half-elf wanderer who is known for his way with the ladies as well as his love of strong drink. He is about six feet tall, with  dark hair and twinkling eyes. He normally dresses in his leather jerkin and breeches, with a pair of fine drake-skin boots and gloves. In combat he dons his suit of ancient scale mail, handed down to him by his mentor. His hexed weapon is a great scimitar, forged of adamantine two years ago for his use with the assistance of the dwarven smith Gunnerstor, with whom he once adventured. Malfeus is 30 years old and is a ronin hexblade. He attempted to join the Order of the Eldrtich Dawn early in his career after his master perished in a fight with the Ettin Lord Kalamask, but found the methodical code of conduct stifling, and was quickly thrown out.



Malfeus’s Spell Notes:

Malfeus casts his spells at the following levels of intensity:
Arcane Imbuement grants +2 magical bonus for 3 hours
Elemental Blade grants a +1D6 elemental damage bonus for 6 minutes (he usually chooses electricity)
Hexblade’s Defense grants +2 defending bonus for 2 hours